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Money: follow it, hide it and Panama leaks

Moderator's Note as new thread's opening post moved to No.14

Money: follow it, hide it and Panama leaks The impact of the millions of documents from the Panamanian lawyers is clear if media headlines are a guide, whether action follows is very moot. See the BBC's briefing:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-35954224

There are a number of issues that could, if not will impact the interests of the 'small wars' community: "dirty" money, covert funding of extremism, international politics, how confident domestic public opinion is in it's leaders who appear to hide their money and more. The reaction in Iceland being the most public:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35966412

There are a number of posts in the current Ukraine War thread, as President Putin's regime allegedly has benefited and this has consequences. Yes, these posts will be moved to this thread shortly and so this opening post will not be first. (Ends)

PanamaPapers - SVR/FSB will have known this was coming. Is that why Russia withdrew some forces from Syria? To throw against Ukraine?
All this coverage of #PanamaPapers - Wha'd do ya suppose is going to be Russia's reaction? Taking bets on escalation in Donbas in next 24-48

Russian Twitter users try to play down the #panamapapers’ “revelation” that Putin (maybe) has $2b in slush funds.

OCCRP ‎@OCCRP
Our site is either under attack or experiencing unprecedented demand - either way, your patience is appreciated #panamapapers
Are you getting through to https://occrp.org/en/panamapapers/ …
okay, or is it slow for you? Let me know, we're still under attack..

The Guardian
✔ ‎@guardian ‘We are responsible members of the global financial community.’ Mossack Fonseca’s response to the Panama Papers http://trib.al/Fiba1nU

AND one wonders why western MSM seems to fail in their coverage of the Russian fighting in eastern Ukraine and the Russian military fighting in Syria......

Perfect example of that MSM failure......

If you rely on @nytimes, "the paper of record," you'd have to read the fine print to find the world's biggest story.
HERE is the true kicker ..maybe they will "wake up" when the OCCRP releases an exclusive report of the involvement of American taxpayers in their hiding of they earning from the US IRS.....in the coming days.

Further proof that Carnegie Russia is totally under Russian control.....first was indicated in their defense of the Russian annexation of Crimea.....and then their support to the Russian invasion of eastern Ukraine and Syria ...now this......

Money: follow it, hide it and Panama leaks

The impact of the millions of documents from the Panamanian lawyers is clear if media headlines are a guide, whether action follows is very moot. See the BBC's briefing:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-35954224

There are a number of issues that could, if not will impact the interests of the 'small wars' community: "dirty" money, covert funding of extremism, international politics, how confident domestic public opinion is in it's leaders who appear to hide their money and more. The reaction in Iceland being the most public:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35966412

There are a number of posts in the current Ukraine War thread, as President Putin's regime allegedly has benefited and this has consequences. Yes, these posts will be moved to this thread shortly and so this opening post will not be first.

1) Much of it was already common knowledge however the sheer size of capital involved still surprises. Quantity has indeed a quality all of it's own.

2) The global nature of the various practices, with the financial maze running truly through the whole world.

3) The variety of entities linked to offshore accounts, with wealthy and companies of all backgrounds using them.

4) So many different goals pursued with so similar means of the financial maze.

Hiding money incurs additional costs which are expected to get offset in the specific calculations. Obviously illgotten money, money put to ill use or money shielded from taxation will tolerate those costs much more readily then money just wanting privacy. Not surprisingly dirty money loves a clean justice system as long it is suitably legally set up.

Last edited by Firn; 04-08-2016 at 11:05 AM.

... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"

The flow of wealth can also be an indicator. This reads like an OSINT puzzle piece for a few readers here.

China is still growing at a healthy clip, China says.

But the slowdown continues, with the world’s second largest economy expanding 6.7% in the first quarter of 2016, compared to the same quarter of the prior year. That’s the slowest growth since the depths of the Great Recession back in 2009.

Recently released data from the Institute of International Finance shows expected net outflows from China of roughly $530 billion in 2016, down a bit from the titanic $675 billion that zipped out last year.

That’s not just foreign money pulling out. IIF analysts forecast that the outflow of cash from China related to foreign investors will ease somewhat this year. “We expect a modest recovery in foreign inflows to China but continued substantial resident outflows,” they wrote.

If Chinese investors are voting with their feet, foreign investors would do well to take note.

Jeff Kiarie was guarding a Chinese mine back in early 2014 near Arusha, Tanzania when Chinese managers and investors picked up and left, leaving their excavators, tractors, and wheel loaders behind, offering no explanation. “They couldn’t just leave so many machines here,” Kiarie, the lone Tanzanian now guarding thousands of tons of Chinese mining equipment, says he reasoned. But that’s exactly what seems to have happened; Kiarie’s mine remains abandoned, and other Chinese operations on the African continent seem to be in peril. For years, Western media has covered Chinese trade and investment with the continent somewhat breathlessly; a November 2006 New York Times report declared that Chinese development “looks more like Africa’s future than its past,” and a February 2011 article for the BBC proclaimed that “the Chinese are coming” to Africa. Now, with the recent drop in Chinese investment and trade with the continent, it might seem appropriate to declare that the Chinese are going. But as some are leaving, others are innovating, exploring, and digging in.

In December, Chinese president Xi Jinping offered a whopping $60 billion loan and aid package to Africa, according to Voice of America. Xi said that China aims to develop infrastructure, improve agriculture and reduce poverty on the continent. This is only the latest example of China’s burgeoning economic presence in Africa. Its investment there has skyrocketed in recent years from $7 billion in 2008 to $26 billion in 2013, according to figures cited at a Wharton Africa Business Forum held last fall. But the relationship is fraught with controversy.

Opponents assert that it is exploitative for China to finance African infrastructure projects in exchange for the continent’s natural resources. Some accuse China of “neo-colonialist” behavior as it acquires the raw materials like oil, iron, copper and zinc that it urgently needs to fuel its own economy. Supporters, on the other hand, say that China’s initiatives to build and improve infrastructure such as roads, railways and telecom systems have been a boon to Africa’s manufacturing sector; have freed up domestic resources for other critical needs such as health care and education; and have aided everyone doing business on the continent.

Chinese nationals have become the largest foreign buyers of US property after pouring billions into the market in search of safe offshore assets, according to a study.

A huge surge in Chinese buying of both residential and commercial real estate last year took their five-year investment total to more than $110bn, according to the study from the Asia Society and Rosen Consulting Group.

The sheer size of that total has helped the real estate market recover from the crash that began in 2006 and precipitated the 2008 economic crisis, they said.